Budget, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Lithuania

An agreement on the EU drafted budget between the ECOFIN and the European Parliament is to be sought, because no agreement was reached at the July meeting, informs ELTA.

In line with the reached compromise, the EU budget commitment assignations are to reach 132.6 billion euros and payment assignations are to total 113.9 billion euros.

Compared to the EU budget for 2008, commitment assignations are to advance 1.7% and payment assignations are to drop 5.6%. According to the Government report, Lithuania supports the compromise offer achieved during the second budget consideration. In line with the negotiated financial portfolio for 2007-2013, it is foreseen to allocate about 5.94 billion litas (1.7 billion euros) a year to Lithuania. According to preliminary data, Lithuania"s contribution to the EU budget will total 1.26 billion litas (360.2 million euros) in 2009.

The final decision on the EU budget for 2009 is planned to be passed in the European Parliament in December this year.